Rolling Stone finished

This is Noelle and Keenan's wedding quilt.  They were married last March, and so they got their quilt for Christmas.  It is one of my favorite quilts to date.  A lot of piecing, but I really like this soothing color palette.  Noelle wanted cool blues and grays.  I bought most of the fabric at Quilted Threads and Cobblestone Quilts, and I supplemented with some Japanese fabrics I already had.

The block is Rolling Stone - such a good old fashioned graphic block.  I tend to add a little sashiko stitching to all of my quilts -

Noelle wanted one red block.  This print (fussy cut) reminds me of her childhood artwork;)

The quilt lives in Raleigh NC with Noelle and Keenan.

x
Cynthia

Catching up

It can't possibly be the end of October, but it is!  I took a little break from social media which was pretty enlightening (in terms of a reality check on how I spend my time) and it has prompted me to permanently pare back a bit.

I have machine quilted Noelle and Keenan's Rolling Stone wedding quilt... (better photos coming soon)

And shared it out our guild meeting.  I hadn't tacked back the binding yet.  

And meanwhile, free spirits that they are, they have moved to North Carolina!  I cried buckets of tears, will miss them so.  But David and I made similar moves when we were young and it's a good move for them, so I get it.

That week, Kaela flew in from Austin for some sister time:

And earlier this month I went with David to London - he was going there for business.  The beauty of  an empty nest and frequent flyer miles.  I can never ever get tired of London and I almost always try to hit Liberty.  Who can resist that Haberdashery Department???  And this time they had these fabulous quilts on display, and for sale.  

But let's make our own quilts!

Borough Market - so fun.... yes that is the world's best gingerbread!

Back home in NH... the prettiest time of year! 

And to top off the month.... RED SOX!!!  with Kaela and Joe repping Boston all the way from Austin. 

xo

Cynthia 

This and that

I've been enjoying Barbara Brackman's block of the month Antebellum Album... but today I realized I sort of felt "done" with the fabrics I'd chosen to use ... so I finished up by making a little top - maybe for a future grandchild (?) or maybe as a comfort quilt for my Guild.

I think it's pretty sweet.   And since I recently took a great class at Quilted Threads on using rulers for machine quilting....

 I will practice using rulers in quilting this little top. 

The top middle block above wasn't part of Barbara's blocks - it's a Rolling Stone.  I'd made it to experiment with a possible block to use for my daughter Noelle's wedding quilt (she was married in March and so she and husband Keenan get a quilt for their first Christmas as a married couple;).  

Noelle and Keenan want grays and blues... 

I decided on 9" inch blocks...

to include some Japanese indigo and tsumugi:

 Blocks for miles... I've tried all kinds of settings but in the end I do think I will set them side by side like this:

I did spend almost all day today, in the sewing room.  I really try to schedule one full day a week to quilting, when I can.  That means scheduling the days ahead of time.  I usually put on an Audible book, or watch/listen to a familiar movie, or watch/listen to some light TV show on Hulu (current favorite is Brooklyn 99) .... but today I watched/listened to the Kavanaugh hearing, the whole thing, and shed some tears.  

But to end this post on a lighter note... check out this cute cat... simple 12" block which was one of the block patterns offered at our Guild meeting this week.  The idea is to piece a block, and bring it in.  There is a raffle, so some lucky quilter gets the whole pile of blocks.  It will be cute to see what everyone uses for buttons.  I do think a whole quilt of various cats would be adorable but I am very carefully NOT starting any new projects right now.  Anyway,  I think I would add whiskers and a little smile to each cat;).    

x

Cynthia